Brother of a Tug
Ten Cents had a brother named Aaron. Aaron lived underneath an oil rig way out into the ocean. Ten Cents and Aaron got along nicely. They were real "Birds of a Feather". You can imagine Ten Cents' excitement when he heard Aaron was coming to the Bigg City Port. The oil rig, Pike, was visiting the area for maintenance reasons. He need repairs that could not be carried out in the middle of the ocean. Aaron was to help Pike get to the port. To carry out the repairs, a makeshift repair dock was placed in the estuary. There, the repairmen at Lucky's Yard could come over and fix Pike. Aaron arrived in the evening. Ten Cents was excited to see him. "Bump bows, old buddy!" said Aaron. The two tugs bumped their bows. Aaron had been built the same time as Ten Cents and was also made from the same design. The only difference was Aaron had grown up as an American tug. "So, what's new?" "Well, I found a ghost," said Ten Cents. Aaron gave him a dull look. "Err, nothing," said Ten Cents. "What would you like to do tomorrow?" "We can race around the harbor," said Aaron. "We could..." "To sleep, you two!" yelled Captain Star. "Fun time is tomorrow time!" The next morning, the two tugs decided to have a race. "How about this?" asked Aaron. "We start at Pike, go through the harbor, turn around at Lucky's Yard and get back to Pike." "Sounds good to me," said Ten Cents. "Let's go!" The two tugs went flying down the harbor. At Lucky's Yard they turned around. "I'm ahead!" yelled Aaron. Ten Cents growled and moved forward and shoved Aaron to the side. Aaron thought he had control, but went flying right into a munitions barge! Barrels of oil and ammunition blew up into the sky! That evening, Captain Star talked to the two tugs. "I am ashamed of you, Aaron," he said. "You caused a huge disaster!" Ten Cents wanted to speak up that it wasn't Aaron's fault, but was afraid to. "You shall be sentenced to a week's worth of carrying the heavy barges up river!" "Aaron, tell him that it's my fault," whispered Ten Cents to Aaron. "No, Ten Cents," said Aaron. "I blew up the barge, I need to take the blame." Ten Cents watched as Aaron went back to Pike. That evening, Ten Cents had a strange dream. He was carrying several explosives on his deck. "Get these off!" he yelled. Aaron, came up. "You made me get sentenced!" he growled. "You shall suffer the consequences!" Aaron when zooming straight toward Ten Cents. Ten Cents shut his eyes... And woke up. He moaned and went up to Captain Star's window. "Captain Star?" he asked. Captain Star poked his loudhailer out the window. "Yes?" he asked. "I caused Aaron's accident," said Ten Cents. "We were racing, and I accidentally pushed him into the barge." Captain Star was quiet. "Ten Cents, thank you for being honest," he said. "I'll change the sentence..." Ten Cents breathed a sigh of relief. "-to you taking Aaron's sentence instead!" Ten Cents wasn't surprised. Aaron and Ten Cents are still friends. Aaron lives in a dock out in Ontario, and comes by for the occasional visits. Ten Cents always waits for Aaron to return, and they always play. But they will never, ever do a race again. Tugs must suffer the consequences of that.